Rajesh Menon explains why he felt Mo Bobat could take RCB to “the next level”

Over the last couple of years, RCB’s Director of Cricket, Mo Bobat, has done a phenomenal job in bringing together an elite crop of players that eventually culminated into RCB’s first IPL title. But what led to Bobat’s Bengaluru connection?

In the latest episode of Big Basket presents RCB Podcast, RCB’s CEO, Rajesh Menon, and Mo Bobat themselves shared the long story about how it all started for the latter.

On the topic of how RCB first spotted Bobat, Menon said, “That's a brilliant question. See, when I took over this franchise in 2018, and I was just starting to understand, but I truly believe in a good team anywhere, where there is corporate or sports, sports even more, where a culture and environment is critical. Talent is there, but talent can blossom only if the culture is good and the environment is good. When I came in, I looked back and understood saying, we need to change. We need to bring process in. We need to bring in a culture which is completely different from what it is.”

Bobat said, “I think it was around 2018, 2019 that Rajesh, who obviously is one of the heads of the franchise, first got in touch with me. I think it was on LinkedIn. And there was nothing else to it. He just connected.”

Menon further added, “And I was following Mo for maybe more than a year, just tracking, like scouting. I was a scout. Scouting Mo for more than a year on LinkedIn, listening to his podcast, his interviews, his YouTube, understanding what is he talking. And then the Bazzball era started and where Mo contributed immensely to ECB's success. So I knew saying that Mo can bring in a lot of value addition. And the blueprint which we are developing, he can add value and take it to the next level.”

Taking the story further, Bobat continued, “And then later 2019, I remember he (Rajesh) reached out after we won the World Cup in 2019 to congratulate me and all of that. And we just got going again on some messages. And initially, we just spoken mainly around things like, you know, he was interested in my views on talent ID and scouting. Some of the things I was doing in my role for England. And we just shared some ideas and thoughts. And there was nothing at the end of that. You know, you just said, well, let's keep in touch.”

He further added, “And then a few months later, he got back in touch and said, you know, look, we've got Mike Hesson as director of cricket. And I think back then Simon Katich was head coach. He says, would you like to come on board as a consultant? He said, we've got people in roles, but actually I'm quite keen on somebody with a different perspective. So spoke it through with the ECB. They were open to it. And I did that for like two or three years. You know, I initially spent time getting to know Mike, who obviously was director of cricket previously. Sanjay Bangar came in. And I got to work with those as a remote consultant for a couple of years.”